In an exclusive interview with People magazine, Austin Butler, the star of "Fighter", recalled that he almost joined the cast of "Top Gun 2" and played the role of Goose's son "Rooster" in the film.
It was the summer of 2018, and Butler was facing a major career decision: to star in Quentin Quentin's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" or to audition for the crew of "Top Gun 2"? He finally decided to cooperate with the talkative Quentin, whom he had admired for a long time, and played a member of the Manson gang in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood":
It turned out that this was the right move. The crew of "Top Gun 2" thought Butler was too young, and the role of "Rooster" was given to Miles Teller.
But Butler impressed casting director Charmian, paving the way for Elvis: "I found something special about this actor, and that was the way he looked at the camera. He knew where the camera was and how to capture himself and make the image charming."
Playing Elvis marked Butler's transformation from an idol to an actor, and his efforts in switching tracks were recognized by the industry. Just as the filming of "Elvis" was coming to an end, the highly respected Tom Hanks (playing the "Colonel" who controls Elvis) took this junior to dinner. During the dinner, he revealed that "Fighter" was about to start filming and asked him if he was interested in joining.
Although Butler was physically and mentally exhausted from playing Elvis and wanted to take some time off after filming, he got on a flight to a London studio. There was a ten-day quarantine period after landing. He used this time to read the original work and watch "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" again. After the quarantine period, he directly entered the "Aerospace Heroes" recruit training camp and conducted military training under the leadership of Dale Dye, a senior coach in "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific", and quickly got into the groove.
The miniseries "Fighting Heroes" has a total of nine episodes. The first and second episodes have been aired on the AppleTV platform, and then one episode per week will be aired on March 16.
"Rolling Stone" magazine commented that although the aerial combat shots are gorgeous (some sequences are very CG), the whole show lacks cohesion. The boys put on oxygen masks so that the audience can't tell who is who. It neither highlights the comradeship of "Band of Brothers", nor is it as solemn as "The Pacific" - the former is often read and often read, while the latter is too heavy to bear to read, but once you watch it once, you will never forget it.